Card feeding mechanism



Apnl 4, 1939. F. 1.. FULLER ET'AL CARD FEEDING MECHANISM 4 i Original Filed Nov. 5, 1935 a 'she atts s heet 1 Illllllllllllllllllll f; ATTORNEY April 4, 1939. F. L, FULLER ET AL 2,

CARD FEEDING MECHANISM Original Filed NOV. 5, 1936 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 April 4, 1939. L FULLER ET AL 2,153,180

CARD FEEDING MECHANISM Original Filed Nov. 5, 1936 6 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG. 7.

c/ 6'3 04- 7086 2.9 Mali/ray 65mm 7f NVE T M ATTORNEY F. L. FULLER ET AL CARD FEEDING MECHANISM A ril 4, 1939.

Original Filed Nov. 5, 1936 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 April 4, 1939. F. L. FULLER ET AL 2,153,180

CARD FEEDING MECHANISM Original Filed Nov. 5, 1936 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 llnl w"- 2w, BY WW4 ATTORNEY A ia! 4, 1939.

F. L FULLER ET AL CARD FEEDING MECHANISM Original Filed Nov. 5, 1936 eets-Sheet 6 uuul llmll llmn I III FIG. 10.

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Patented Apr. 4, 1939 UNITED. STATES PATENT OFFlCE CARD FEEDING MECHANISM York Original application November 5, 1936, Serial No.

109,227. Divided and this application November 11, 1937, Serial No. 174,028

10 Claims.

. This application is a division of application Serial No. 109,227 flied November 5, 1936 and relates to card feeding mechanisms for machines and particularly to machines of the type known as card controlled tabulating machines.

The main object of the present invention is the incorporation of improvements in card feeding mechanisms that will cause machines of th s type to operate smoother to thereby make it possible to increase the speed of operation.

With respect to the card feeding mechanisms it has, heretofore. been the practice to clutch the card feeding mechanism to a drive shaft while the latter is rotating, hence suddenly starting the operation of the card feeding mechanism from rest at the same speed of the shaft creating shocks and jerks which were deleterious to the mechanisms and the machine.

The present improvement is the provision of a novel Geneva driving mechanism for the card feeding mechanism which permits the clutch engagement when certain parts acquire their zero or minimum speed, and to cause the operation of the card feeding mechanism to be gradually accelerated from rest.

The novel driving mechanism is thereafter operative to drive the card feeding mechanism synchronously with the rotation of the main drive shaft so as to analyze the card perforations, the main driving shaft causing the rotation of the totalizer or printing elements synchronously with the analyzing of the card perforations effected by the operation of the card feeding mechanism.

In order to provide easy access to the card feeding mechanism for the insertion and removal of the cards, servicing, etc., the card feeding mechanism is located at the top of the machine and in order not to unduly widen the machine the card feeding mechanism has preferably a short travel for the cards. Obviously where the card feeding mechanism has a cycle of operation corresponding to the long cycle of operation of the drive shaft the desirable short travel of the cards is not possible so that another object for access. The upper portion controls locking mechanism which insures the proper enmeshment of cooperating gears and prevents the operation of the machine unless the two portions are operatively co-related.

Other objects which are far too numerous to be mentioned herein will be obvious as the specification is understood and all of which are attained in an efficient manner in construction and design and produce a card feeding mechanism having very desirable characteristics in operation, simplicity in construction and manufacture, servicing and appeal in commercial requirements.

While some of the improvements are incorporated in a card feeding mechanism for a tabulating machine their disclosure should be considered as merely illustrative and not restrictive, since many of the improvements herein may, with equal benefits, be employed in machines of other types.

In said drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation taken at the left end of the machine and shows the main driving connectionsfor the card feeding mechanism.

Fig. 2, is a perspective view of the main drive, the driving connections therefrom and the clutch to the card feeding mechanism.

Figs. 3 and 4 are detail views of the Geneva driving mechanism in operated positions which are selected so as to facilitate the understanding of its operation.

Fig. 5 is a view in side elevation illustrating the Geneva driving mechanism in its normal position.

Fig. 6 is an electrical wiring diagram.

Fig. 7 is a timing diagram of the machine.

Fig. 8 is a view in side elevation showing the left hand side of the card feeding mechanism.

Fig. 9 is a view in side elevation showing the right hand side of the card feeding mechanism.

Fig. 10 is a central sectional view of the card feeding mechanism.

Fig. 11 is a perspective view of a card lever and its associated contact operating devices.

Power drive The motive power for the improved tabulating machine is derived from a motor ill (see Fig. 6) which through a belt connection I I (Fig. 1) drives a shaft of a generator l2. Attached to one end of the generator shaft is a worm screw i 3 (Fig. 1) meshing with a worm wheel l4 attached to a shaft IS, the worm screw 13 and the worm wheel I providing a speed reducing mechanism so as to drive the shaft i5 at a speed reduced with respect to the shaft of the generator l2. Attached to the shaft I5 is a pinion i6 meshing with a gear l1 secured to a continually rotating main drive shaft l3.

Geneva drive mechanism Shaft I3 (Fig. 2) at its right end carries a gear l9 meshing with a gear 23, said gears i3 and 9 having a gear ratio 1-1. The gear 26 is fast to a stud shaft 2| and to which shaft there is secured a mutilated gear 22. An index wheel 23 (Fig. 5) which has the function of a roll carrier is pinned at 24 to the mutilated gear 22 and to a locking plate 25. Hence, the mutilated gear 22, index wheel 23 and locking plate 25 are attached together and also to the shaft 2| and rotate with said shaft as a unit and are continually driven at a constant and uniform speed by the main drive shaft l3.

The index wheel 23 carries a pair of rollers 26 and 21 and the mutilated gear 22 carries a roller 23. The above described parts form parts of a Geneva drive and the remaining parts of the Geneva drive will now be described.

A tube shaft 29 (Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5) is journaled in side frames of the machine (not shown). A mutilated gear 32, a cam plate 33, and a cam plate 34 are pinned together by pins and the entire assembly by a pin 36 is secured to said tube shaft 23.

Assuming that the drive starts with the position of the parts shown in Fig. 5, which is the position at the start of the accelerated movement given to tube shaft 29, at the initial counterclockwise movement of the roller 26 a portion 25a of the concentric portion of the locking plate 25 moves away from a shoulder 34a of cam plate 34 which unlocks tube shaft 23 and permits the rotation of the tube shaft 29. The roller 26 in its counterclockwise rotation will now coact with the cam surface 33a (the portion shaded) of cam plate 33 and as roller 26 rotates in a counterclockwise direction it will act on the cam plate 33 and rotate the latter in a clockwise direction and roller 26 will move in a concentric path towards the center of the tube shaft 29 and rotate the tube shaft 29 at a uniformly accelerated rotation until the center of the tube shaft 29, roller 26 and shaft 2| are in horizontal alignment.

Attention is directed to the fact that the tooth 31 and the tooth 33 of the gear 32 are provided with cam edges 31:: and 330, respectively, and said cam edges 31a and 33a coact at different times with cam edges 22a and 22b respectively of the mutilated gear 22. The cam edges 31a and 22a coact during the above described accelerated movement for the purpose of holding roller 26 against the cam 33a and which was found, in practice, to be essential.

After the accelerated motion the teeth of the mutilated gear 22 will mesh with the teeth of the gear 32 and thereafter the latter and tube 23 is driven with a uniform speed of rotation and as will be evident later on this occurs during the time the index points are being analyzed and occurs at a uniform speed of rotation.

At the termination of the uniform speed of rotation of the gear 32 all the index points have been analyzed and by mechanism now to be explained the tube shaft 29 is given a rotation at a decelerated speed.

The tooth space 33 of gear 22 is now engaged by the tooth 33 of gear 32 and at this time the rollers 21, 23 will be in a horizontal alignment with the centers of the tube shaft 23 and shaft 2|, as shown in Fig. 3.

There are two possible conditions at this time which arise from different speeds of rotation offected by the main drive shaft. It will first be assumed that shaft II has been driven at such a speed as to cause the inertia stored in the members attached to shaft 29 to overthrow the unit carried by tube shaft 23 in a clockwise direction.

In this case the cam surface 34b (shaded) of cam plate 34 presses against roller 23, (Fig. 3) since the roller 23 at this time is below the cam surface 34b of cm plate 34. At the beginning of the deceleration cam surface 22b cooperates with the surface 36:: of the tooth 33 to impart additional driving motion to the gear 32 as the teeth of the gears 22 and 32 de-mesh.

Assuming that the drive shaft l3 turns at a much slower speed the roller 21 is now positioned as shown in Fig. 4 so as to cooperate with the surface 33b (shaded) of cam plate 33 to drive the cam plate 33 and therefore the gear 32, also at a decelerated speed. It was found in practice that since roller 21 was located outside of the pitch line of gear 22 that it was not practical to have the cam plate 336 of suflicient length to complete the movement of deceleration. Accordingly the auxiliary plate 34c of cam plate 34, which is offset so as to be in the plane of roller 23, cooperates with said roller 23 (see Fig. 4) to complete the movement of deceleration because roller 23 utimately bears against the plate 340 in its counterclockwise rotation. The cooperation of roller 23 with both cam surface 34b and plate 340 takes place irrespective of the high or low speed of rotation of the drive shaft l3. At the completion of the deceleration, when tube shaft 23 has been given a full rotation, roller 23 rides out between cam surface 34b and plate 34c and gear 22 now completes its rotation to a full revolution to bring it to the position shown in Fig. 5 but during this rotation the tube shaft 23 will be held stationary. During the completion of the rotation of gear 22 the concentric surface 25b of the locking plate 25 coacts with the concentric surface between 34d and 340 of the cam plate 34 to provide the desired locking action to hold tube shaft 23 stationary while shaft 2| is further rotated.

The above described Geneva drive mechanism is utilized to drive a card feeding mechanism through a clutch device shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The gear 32, it will be recalled, is attached to the tube shaft 29 and the latter carries an arm 4| to which is pivoted at 42 a clutch dog 43 urged by a spring 44 to cause a clutch tooth 45 to fit in a notch 46 of a disk 41 rotatable with a gear 43 which meshes with a gear 43 secured to a shaft 53. The disk 41 and gear 43 are secured to a sleeve 5| loosely mounted on the sleeve 23.

Fixed to gear 43 is a pin 52 engaging a slot 53 in a disk 54 attached to a shaft 55 which is journaled inside the sleeve 23, this construction causing tube shaft 23 by the clutch device to rotate disk 41, gear 43, disk 5|, and shaft 55 during card feeding operations.

A roller 56 carried by an arm 53 coacts with the lower end 53 of the clutch dog 43 so as to prevent in each rotation of arm 4| the clutch tooth 45 from engaging the clutch notch 46 except when a magnet 63 attracts its armature 6| and which latter is supported by a bell crank 62 pivoted at 63. The nose 64 of the bell crank 62 normally catches over an extension 65 of the arm 53. When nose 64 is disengaged from the the uppermost feeding roller es of-the first set extensionllaspring" causesarm lttorock and move the roller 80 out of cooperation with the lower end 80 of the clutch dog 40 so that since at this time the clutch tooth 45 is positioned over the periphery of disk 41 it will enter said notch 40 while the disk I is at rest so that subsequently the arm 4| through the clutch dog I will drive the disk 41 for one revolution. This engagement takes place at substantially the termination of a machine cycle when the speed of rotation of tube shaft 29 is at a minimum providing card feed is to be effected during the following cycle. Hence. the mechanism driven by the clutch deviceis started in operation very gradually and without shock or jerks, and which is accomplished by the Geneva drive just described.

To positively knock-oil the armature and cause its retraction against the attraction due to residual magnetism and to restore arm 50 to its normal position a pin 01 carried by the disk 41 engages-a projection of the arm 50, and rocks the arm so that it is relatched by. the nose 0 and held relatched'by spring 60. An adjustable screw 09 carried by the arm 50 engages a projection II of the bell crank 02 and positively restores the armature to a normal position effected by the tension in the spring 00.

Card feeding mechanism 'The card feeding mechanism is best shown in Figs. 8 to 11 inclusive and by referring to Fig. 10 it will be noted that the supply of tabulating cards I is placed in a hopper I0 and upon the top of the stack of tabulating cards there is placed the customary weighted presser plate I1 so as to press the stack of tabulating cards downwardly to .cause the left edge of the lowermost card to be engaged by a picker I8. The tabulating cards are of a form shown in patent to C. D. Lake. No. 1 772,492 dated August 12, 1930 and each card is provided with 80 columns of data" which is adapted to be analyzed and tabulated.

From Fig. 9 it will be seen that to the shaft 50 there is attached a disk I! to which is pivoted at 00 a link 0| and said link is pivoted at 82 to a picker operating frame 00 which is pivoted at 04. This connection is shown in Fig. 9 for one side of the frame 03 and referring to Fig. 8 it will-be observed that a similar connection is provided for the other side of the frame 83 and comprises a disk 05 rotatable with gear 49 and to which disk there ispivoted at 86 a link 01 which also has a pivot connection to the picker operating frame 03.

Referring now to Fig. 10, it will be seen that the frame 03 has attached thereto an arm 88 having a forked connection to a pin 89 carried bytrains of gearing now to be described in detail.

Referring to Fig. 9. it will be seen that to the shaft 50 there is secured a gear 92 which is in .meshwith a pinion. attached to a shaft 94 which c'arries the lowermost feeding roller 95 of theflrst set (see Fig. 10). To the shaft 90 there is attached a'gear 00 (Fig. 9) meshing with a .pinion 01 attached toashaft 90 which carries (see Fig. l0).

The second or the intermediate set of feeding rollers comprises a lowermost roller I00 and the uppermost roller IOI' which are driven by a gearing now to be described by reference to Fig. 8. The gear 40 (Fig. 8) meshes. with a gear I02 which is attached to a shaft I03 which carries the lowermost feeding roller I00. The shaft I00 has attached thereto a pinion I04 meshing with a pinion III! which is attached to the shaft which carries the uppermost feeding roller The third set of feeding rollers comprises a lowermost roller I01 and an uppermost roller I00 (Fig. 11) and the gear drive for these rollers will now be described with particular reference to Fig. 8. The gear I02 is in mesh with a gear I08 which meshes with a pinion 0 attached to a shaft III which carries the lowermost feeding roller I". To the gear IIO there is attached 7 a pinion II2 meshing with a pinion III attached to a shaft I I4 which carries the uppermost feeding roller I00. I

By the above described gearing, the three sets of feeding rollers will feed the card as it emerges from the. card supply magazine past the first or control brushes II5 (Fig. 10) and past the second or adding control brushes IIS and thence to a storage magazine III. 0 Reference has previously been made to the card feeding clutch control magnet 00 which is energized to control card feeding operations and the electrical means by which card feed is initiated and continued for successive tabulating cards will now be described with particular reference to the wiring diagram shown in Fig. 6.

As previously stated. the machine is provided with a generator I2 and said generator is adapted to supply alternating current to line wires III and H0 and direct current to line wires I and III and said direct current and alternating current supply is adapted to furnish current for the energization of various magnets substantially in a manner which is in accordancewith the patent to J. W. Bryce, No. 1,926,890 dated September 12, 1933 and to which reference may be had for the description of the generator which is generally described herein. i

I When thestart key I22 is depressed a circuit will be made from the A. C. line side IIO through ,the card feeding clutch control magnet 00, contacts I23 now closed, the manually controlled .stop key contacts I24, the manually closed start key contacts I22 now closed, and through the contacts CI to the other A. C. line side H9. The machine herein is provided with a series of machine controlled contacts designated herein as the "0 contacts and F contacts and these contacts are adapted to close at predetermined times in the machine operation and their timing fully is disclosed in the timing diagram by driving means which will now be described in detail with particular reference toFig. 1. The gear I'I meshes with a. pinion I26 and rotatable with said pinion is a pinion I2'I meshing with a gear I28 attached to a shaft I29 Each of said 0" contacts is in. the form of a commutator comprising as shown for one C contact a pair of brushes I30 and I3I adapted to'make electrical contact with a segmentv I02 which is carried by a disk III of insulation and rotated by the shaft I.

Obviously the timing of the closure and the opening of the various circuits is controlled by the length of the commutator segments I52 each of which is designed in accordance with the particular times of closing and opening of the circuits.

Referring now to the timing diagram withthe start key held depressed, when contacts C-I are closed the energization of the card feed clutch magnet 55 causes the engagement of the clutch and the feeding of the lowermost card from the supply hopper to a position where the leading is edge of the card is almost in contact with the first set of brushes II5 (see Fig. 10). After the first cycle of machine operation, the start key is again depressed to cause further feeding of the card to the right as viewed in Fig. 10 and during N this second cycle of operation, the card which is fed will pass over a card lever I54 and rock the same about its pivot I55 (Figs. 10 and 11) to cause an extension I55 thereof to act on a pusher rod I51 to close card lever controlled contacts 55 I55.

Referring now to the wiring diagram, with the card lever contacts I55 closed, the circuit extends from the direct current line side I2I through contacts 0-8, card lever contacts I55, relay magnet I55, relay magnet I45 to the other direct current line side I causing, when contacts 0-4 close, the energization of the relay magnet I59 and the closure of its relay contacts "5a. From the timing diagram, it will be seen that contacts 55 0-5 close at the same time the card lever contacts I55 are closed and the relay magnets I15 and I will be held energized by the closure of the contacts 6-5 at the beginning of the next cycle of machine operation. By means of the closed relay contacts I45a, contacts CI. and contacts F--I which close at the last part of the card feeding cycle when contacts CI close an impulse will be transmitted to the card feed clutch magnet 55 so as to cause automatically a 0 third cycle of machine operation during which operation the card passes the adding control brushes II5.

The manner in which the various F" contacts are controlled in operation will now be described with particular reference to Fig. 8. To the gear I55 there is attached a gear I4I which meshes with a gear I42 secured to a shaft I45 which carries the commutator segments for controlling the F-I contacts. From Fig. 8, it will u be seen that the end of the shaft I45 is threaded so as to receive a nut I44 which not only clamps the various commutator-s on the shaft I45. but permits by the unloosening of thenut I44 the individual adjustment of each of said commutagg tors. This construction is also provided for the C contacts.

Referring now to Fig. 10, it will be seen that when the card emerges from the last set of feeding rollers I 51 and I55 it is inclined downwardly beneath a plate I45 so as to passunder a mutilated rubber roller I45 attached to a shaft I41.

Referring now to Fig. 8, it will be seen that the feed roller carrying shaft I I I has attached thereto a gear I45 (same size as gear II!) which 7 drives the shaft I41 through a train of gears I45. As the roller I45 rotates, it will engage the top surface of the card and further feed it so that its leading edge abuts the angled portion I55 of the plate I45 at which time the card is in the 1 storage hopper III. The roller I45 may turn further so as to be free of the top card fed in the supply hopper.

Referring to the wiring diagram in Fig. 6 and to the timing diagram, it will be evident as long as cards are fed so as to retain the card lever 5 contacts I 55 closed, at the termination of each card feed cycle contacts F-I will close so as to transmit an impulse to the feed clutch control magnet to causing the successive feeding of the cards. .10

The card feeding unit is provided with an improved construction whereby the upper set of feeding rollers and other parts may be elevated for access to the feeding mechanism for the purpose ofadJustment, inspection, cleaning, etc. .15

From Figs. 8 and 9, it will be seen that the upper portion I 5I of the card feeding unit is hinged at I52 to the lower section of the card feeding mechanism and in order to rigidly hold both portionsin cooperation there is pivoted in the up- N per section I at I53 a pair of hook shaped members I54 and I55 adapted to catch or hook over rollers I55 and I51, respectively, so as to 'hold both sections firmly together. The members I54 and I55 are tied together by a bail mem- 6 her I55 provided with a contact operating portion I59 adapted when both sections are operatively correlated to close the aforesaid contacts I23. By manually withdrawing the hooks of the members I54 and I55 out of cooperation with the 80 studs I55 and I51, the upper section may be rocked around the pivot I5! and at this time the contacts I23 will be open by their resiliency due to the removal of the contact operating portion I59.

Referring to the wiring diagram, the opening of contacts I 23 will prevent the energization of the card feed clutch control magnet 55 thereby preventing feeding of the cards unless both sec-. tions of the card feeding mechanism are in 1 proper operative relationship. 1

In order to insure the proper meshing of the correlated gears H2 and H5 and I54 and Ill (Fig. 8) and gears 55 and 9'! (Fig. 9) there is provided a. slidably mounted plate I55 (Fig. 8) 5 which is pivoted at I5I to a double arm I52 pivoted at I 55 and having a top portion I54 coacting with the aforesaid yoke I5. When the upper section is unlatched springs I55 will be free to urge the plate I50 to the right as shown in 0 Fig. 8 thereby causing projections I55 and I5! thereof to engage with the teeth of gears III and I55, respectively, and a projection I55 to engage with a gear attached to shaft .55 holding said gears in such position that the teeth of gears 55 H5, I55, 51 (Fig. 9) will engage the interdental spaces of the correlated gears Ill, I54, and 55 respectively when the upper section is lowered to its normal position.

The above described mechanism will eifectiveg ly prevent the breaking of teeth of the coacting gears.

While there has been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a single modification as it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a card controlled machine, a card feed-v 15 ing mechanism, a cyclically operable shaft, and a drive intermediate said card feeding mechanism and said shaft, said drive comprising a Geneva drive and including driving means to drive said card feeding mechanism to feed the card at a uniform speed synchronously with the rotation of said shaft.

2. In a machine of the class described, card feeding mechanism, a constantly rotating shaft, a Geneva drive comprising means whereby said shaft drives a driving clutch member at an accelerated speed, means for thereafter causing the shaft to drive the driving clutch member at a uniformspeed synchronously with said shaft, and means thereafter decelerating the movement of said driving-clutch member by said shaft, a driven clutch element for driving the card feeding mechanism by said driving clutch member, and means for causing the engagement of said clutch element and said driven clutch member prior to driving said companion clutch member at an accelerated speed.

3. In a card controlled machine, card feeding mechanism, a constantly rotating shaft, a Geneva drive comprising; means for causing said shaft to drive a driving clutch member at an accelerated speed; means for thereafter causing the shaft to drive the driving clutch member at auniform speed synchronously with said shaft; means for thereafter decelerating the speed of movement of said driving clutch member by said shaft and means for thereafter retaining said driving clutch member at rest while said shaft continues to rotate, and means for effecting a clutch connection between said driving clutch member and said card feeding mechanism when the latter is at rest and prior to the driving of the driving clutch member at an accelerated speed.

4. In a card controlled machine, in combination, a cyclically rotatable drive shaft, a card feeding mechanism, and a Geneva drive mechanism intermediate said drive shaft and the card feeding mechanism including means to initially drive the card feeding means at an accelerated speed, means to thereafter drive the card feeding mechanism at a uniform speed and synchnonously with the rotation of the main drive shaft, and means for thereafter locking the card feeding mechanism at rest while said shaft rotates to complete its cycle of rotation.

5. In a cyclically operable tabulating machine, a card feeding mechanism, a cyclically operable main drive shaft, a Geneva drive connected intermediate said drive shaft and said card feeding mechanism comprising means for effecting a cycle of operation of the said feeding mechanism to feed a card synchronously with the rotation'of the main drive shaft, and means for thereafter decelerating the speed of operation of said feeding mechanism to a rest position of the latter.

6. In a card controlledmachine, in combination, means for feeding cards, a constantly rotating shaft, a Geneva drive intermediate said card feeding means and said shaft comprising; means for causing the shaft to drive the card feeding means at an increasing accelerated speed; means for thereafter causing the shaft to drive the card feeding means uniformly and synchro- 7o nously with said shaft, and means for decelerating the speed of operation of said card feeding mechanism to a rest position of the latter.

'7. In a card controlled machine, card feeding mechanism, a constantly rotating main drive shaft, a clutch member, a companion clutch member having a driving connection to said card feeding mechanism, said companion clutch member being at rest at the rest position of said card feeding mechanism, a Geneva drive intermediate said constantly main drive shaft comprising means for driving said first-named clutch member from a rest position of the clutch member with an accelerated speed, and comprising means to decelerate the speed of said first-named clutch member to a rest position, and means for causing the engagement of the aforesaid clutch members after the first-named clutch member is decelerated to a rest position to thereby drive the card feeding mechanism at a speeddependent upon the speed of the first-named clutch member.

8. In a card controlled machine, card feeding mechanism, a constantly rotating main drive shaft, a clutch member, a companion clutch member having a driving connection to said card feeding mechanism, said companion clutch member being at rest at the rest position of said card feeding mechanism, a Geneva dn'v e intermediate said constantly main drive shaft comprising means for driving said first-named clutch mem ber from a rest position of the clutch member with an accelerated speed, and comprising means for thereafter driving said first-named clutch member at a uniform speed synchronously with the rotation of said shaft, and comprising means to decelerate the speed of said first-named clutch member to a rest position, and means for causing the engagement of the aforesaid clutch members after the first-named clutch member isdecelerated to a rest position to thereby drive the card feeding mechanism at a speed dependent upon the speed of the first-named clutch member.

9. In a machine of the class described, in combination, a stationary frame, a plurality of rotatable feeding rollers carried by said frame, a movable frame carrying companion rotatable feeding rollers and separatedtherefrom by movement of the movable frame, means for latching the aforesaid frames' together for enabling the rollers to cooperate for feeding operations, machine controlling contacts, and means for causing said latching means to controlthe different positions of said contacts in accordance whether said frames are latched or unlatched.

10. In a machine of the class described, in combination, a stationary frame, a plurality of rotatable feeding rollers carried by said frame, a movable frame carrying companion rotatable feeding rollers and separated therefrom by movement of said movable frame, a gear attached to each feeding roller carried by the movable frame meshing with gears attached to the feeding rollers carried by the stationary frame, means for latching the aforesaid frames together, means for locking the gears carried by said movable frame, and means controlled by said latching means for releasing said locking means by the movement of said latching means to unlatch said frames.

FREDERICK L. FUILER. GEORGE F. DALY. 

